- Archaeological data collection is based on the description
of archaeological contexts. An archaeological excavation
demolishes the original matrix within which the cultural
material is found and special care is taken to record
spatial context. Each artifact is described in terms of its
physical and spatial properties as well as its relation to the
matrix (for example soil composition). As several
thousands of artifacts can be unearthed during a field
season, there is a need to develop digital resources and
collections that focus on the publication and preservation
of data and the creation of tools for the analysis of these
data. The first section of this paper presents preliminary
results and the lessons learnt on the development of a
prototype for an Australian archaeological digital
collection based on data grid middleware and
infrastructure. The second section introduces a versatile
3D reconstruction tool that visualizes the excavated
archaeological artifacts with its associated stratigraphy.
The data come from two major archaeological projects in
Queensland, Australia: the Mill Point Archaeological
Project and the Cania Gorge Regional Archaeological
Project. These case studies were selected to represent the
different challenges in deploying these digital
technologies to Australian archaeological applications.
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